Your question reminds me of The Dark Mountain Manifesto, where artistic depiction of our predicament in a world with no future is encouraged: https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/
I have thought about that for a while but it is an important manifesto. Interesting that @Paul Kingsnorth has subsequently gone all in on Christianity.
I’ve just seen a great example of the art of weavers being used to highlight the plight of those women accused of witchcraft via the “Witches of Scotland” tartan, but I don’t know how to upload an image here. Thought you might be interested - here is the text: “The newly registered Witches of Scotland tartan commemorates one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in our country's history. Designed by Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill, the appropriately gothic pattern carries symbolic meaning. Its black and grey tones reflect the darkness of the era and the ashes of those burned. Red signifies bloodshed, while pink represents the legal tapes binding trial documents then and now. The thread count
encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and
1+7+3+6 = 17), with these numbers woven into black and
grey bands surrounding a white check of three threads— symbolizing the campaign's three objectives: securing a pardon, an apology, and memorials. The 173 black threads in the tartan's squares represent the 173 years the Witchcraft Act was in force.”
Art is all that remains when we as an individual, or species are gone... art and architecture (and I include architecture in the arts!). So however much of a doomsday forecaster you want to be...... art matters.
Yes, I like Brian Eno’s definition of culture as everything that we don’t have to do. We may have to brush our teeth but culture is when we choose a particular brand of toothpaste.
I am a painter who takes his cue from Veneziano to Velazquez to Goya to Manet and so on. I can render my anxieties in a painting containing a nuclear power submarine or a landline or a bomber or King Charles or Donald Trump or Putin. What a photographer should not do is wring their hands because in that situation how do you press the button?
I was at a talk today which showed a film about Glasgow called A Symphony of Stone. It had a remarkable theory about how Greek Thomson was inspired by John Martin's paintings.
Perhaps the paintings get him up in the morning but like a lot of landscapes and seascapes they offer an exaggerated view sometimes bordering on Fascism, the countryside is where fascism gets its support. The obvious stylistic influence is in his nickname. ‘Alexander Greek’. The greatest influence is the tenement and the grid.
Your question reminds me of The Dark Mountain Manifesto, where artistic depiction of our predicament in a world with no future is encouraged: https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/
I have thought about that for a while but it is an important manifesto. Interesting that @Paul Kingsnorth has subsequently gone all in on Christianity.
Thanks for a brilliant article Neil! I was also inspired by The Dark Mountain Manifesto when I wrote my masters dissertation in 2010: https://www.ellieharrison.com/careeristmentality/#NowNever
That was a great read - thank you.
I’ve just seen a great example of the art of weavers being used to highlight the plight of those women accused of witchcraft via the “Witches of Scotland” tartan, but I don’t know how to upload an image here. Thought you might be interested - here is the text: “The newly registered Witches of Scotland tartan commemorates one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in our country's history. Designed by Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill, the appropriately gothic pattern carries symbolic meaning. Its black and grey tones reflect the darkness of the era and the ashes of those burned. Red signifies bloodshed, while pink represents the legal tapes binding trial documents then and now. The thread count
encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and
1+7+3+6 = 17), with these numbers woven into black and
grey bands surrounding a white check of three threads— symbolizing the campaign's three objectives: securing a pardon, an apology, and memorials. The 173 black threads in the tartan's squares represent the 173 years the Witchcraft Act was in force.”
https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=14651
Looks like satanic numerology! 😱
😂
Interesting that ‘pressing the button’ is loaded with a fearful destructive message. No going back once it happens in both.
Art is all that remains when we as an individual, or species are gone... art and architecture (and I include architecture in the arts!). So however much of a doomsday forecaster you want to be...... art matters.
Yes, I like Brian Eno’s definition of culture as everything that we don’t have to do. We may have to brush our teeth but culture is when we choose a particular brand of toothpaste.
Super, I can get behind that....
I am a painter who takes his cue from Veneziano to Velazquez to Goya to Manet and so on. I can render my anxieties in a painting containing a nuclear power submarine or a landline or a bomber or King Charles or Donald Trump or Putin. What a photographer should not do is wring their hands because in that situation how do you press the button?
I was at a talk today which showed a film about Glasgow called A Symphony of Stone. It had a remarkable theory about how Greek Thomson was inspired by John Martin's paintings.
Perhaps the paintings get him up in the morning but like a lot of landscapes and seascapes they offer an exaggerated view sometimes bordering on Fascism, the countryside is where fascism gets its support. The obvious stylistic influence is in his nickname. ‘Alexander Greek’. The greatest influence is the tenement and the grid.